Friday, December 09, 2005

Ideas in the minds of that elite will eventually filter down, to the point where some slick but ignorant journalist will find slogans that correspond

…it is necessary for a political thinker to learn how to write
Roger Scruton says to Max Goss during the latter's interview (in two parts) with the author of The Meaning of Conservatism.
Marx solved this problem, unfortunately, but then so did Burke. Good writing affects the minds of the literary elite, and ideas in the minds of that elite will eventually filter down, to the point where some slick but ignorant journalist will find the slogans that correspond, at his level of mental life, to those distantly and vaguely perceivable notions. This is in part what Plato had in mind, when he advocated the noble lie. Not “noble” but elegant; not a "lie" but journalism.
I cannot begin telling how appropriate I found Scruton's conclusion in describing my feelings after years of research on my book on anti-Americanism in France and abroad.
I think conservatives should study the ideas and arguments that prevail on the left. There is always something to learn from these arguments, if only which way the wind of resentment is now blowing. And lifting your eyes from this joyless stuff, you will thank God that you are a conservative.

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